Ross Tenneson

Daniel Simmons

Sam Choi

Ross Tenneson

Daniel Simmons

Pastor Daniel Simmons preaches from 1 Peter 5 on Shepherds for our Life Together Series.

Exegetical Main Point: Peter calls Shepherds and sheep to humble themselves before God in their respective roles. 

Main Point of the Sermon: : Shepherds, humble yourselves before God in the way you serve, and sheep, in the way you submit yourselves to your shepherds. 

I’m a PK, a pastor’s kid so I grew up in the church. And that experienced is quite mixed. I have many fond memories like singing with my family in the church pews, often being led by my Dad. But I also experienced a lot of confusion as I watched my parents endure very painful situations. My dad faced much defeat in his ministry, including many complaints against him, some small and some more substantial. The most challenging actually was a few years back when about fifteen members of his two-year-old church plant came to him just before a Sunday service and asked him to resign because they didn’t feel like the church was growing fast enough under his leadership. 

I’ve been in your shoes also as a sheep submitting to flawed men. I could share a number of other stories of ways I’ve been hurt by church leaders. I’ve also ministered as a shepherd, trying to care for sometimes very challenging people and have also been made all the more aware of my weaknesses and sin, which can be very discouraging. Pastor Mark Devers recently said that he’s getting calls almost daily from men who are ready to step away from ministry because of its challenges.

Now, I’m not there, but as both a sheep and a shepherd, there’s been a lot of joy, but also pain for me in the church. 

And what’s sad about this is that I’m not the exception. We’ve been reminded in the last few weeks just how common this experience is for both sheep and shepherd. 

This sermon is titled “Who Are Shepherds and What Do We Do With Them?”

We are including this sermon as part of our Life Together series because:

God has set up his church with a particular structure of leadership that we want to follow in an accurate and healthy way. So, today we will explore what the Bible says about 1) who shepherds are 2) what they are called to do and 3) how the church (the sheep) should respond to them.

We’re including this sermon because, historically, communities rise and fall based on its leadership. Good Christian leaders have been catalysts for great Gospel movements and others have brought about disgrace to Christ’s name and have led many astray by both their teaching and their character. So, as your God-ordained shepherds, we want to remind you of the commitment we make to you as your pastors and invite you to hold us accountable as we seek to faithfully fulfill the call God has given us to shepherd the flock. 

Because there are so many opportunities for suffering for both sheep and shepherds in the church, we want to offer comfort to you that God will ultimately reward your suffering as each of us endure through trust in God. 

We just read from 1 Peter, a book written by the Apostle Peter most likely around the mid-60’s A.D. to the many churches near and far who were being persecuted. These churches were hurting, confused, discouraged and they needed comfort. So, Peter, who had both witnessed Christ’s sufferings and resurrection and himself was enduring suffering, wanted to show God’s people how to suffer faithfully as they follow Christ. Our text applies the same message to both sheep and shepherds. Let’s look at verse 1. 

The Apostle Peter exhorts the elders among the churches. His letter would have been heard by everyone in the churches, and Peter had a specific exhortation for the elders. That word “exhort” is a strong one. It’s not a “maybe try this” but a “you must do this” urgent kind of word for the elders. 

Who are the elders? I need to get nerdy here for a minute. (I’m sorry for stealing your thunder, Ross. Ross is our resident nerd on staff. Truthfully, I don’t know where our church would be without him.) The word “elder” comes from the Greek word πρεσβύτερος, meaning relatively advanced in age (BDAG). The elderly of the community were generally the wiser who would lead. Now, we know from the book of Timothy that not all elders were elderly – Timothy was a young man appointed by the Apostle Paul as an elder ­– but they were regardless the wiser and more mature of the community who were appointed to lead the church. This leadership office is also called overseer in Scripture, but elder is the most commonly used title for the leaders of the church. 

So the Bible teaches that an elder is a particular office of the church appointed by God to lead the church. 

How were they appointed? In Acts we see Paul and Barnabas appointing elders for the churches in each town, and likewise, Titus, Paul’s disciple, is called to do the same. So elders are simply sheep themselves who are appointed by other elders who see that they are qualified and competent to lead God’s church.  

Notice also that Peter address “elder(s)” (plural) among you. Consistently, in the Bible you will find churches being led by not just one man but by a plurality of elders (Titus 1:5; Acts 14:23; 1 Pet. 5:1-2). This is important, though it has been overlooked by many in our generation to the detriment of the church. One important reason for this is that each elder has different gifts used to equip the church – some elders thrive at starting new churches, some at teaching, some at making disciples, and some at calling their community to repentance. Without multiple leaders with multiple gifts, the church suffers. I’m not saying every church has to have every one of these gifts present on the elder team, though that would be ideal, but rather that God appoints a plurality of leaders for the good of the church. 

Further, we know from the list of qualifications for elders in Timothy and Titus that elders must be men (1 Tim. 3:1-7; Titus 1:5-9). Scripture teaches that this detail is an implication of God’s created order. He made man first and then the women. Just as in the home God calls men to lovingly lead their wives, so too in the church he calls men to lovingly lead the congregation. In both cases, this position of leadership is one of sacrifice and responsibility, not comfort and privilege, as we’ll see in just a minute. 

So Peter addresses the elders, and he addresses them as a “fellow elder”. Not only is he an Apostle, he also served as an elder of God’s church. 

Further, Peter reminds the elders that he is a witness of the sufferings of Christ and that he is also “a partaker in the glory that is going to be revealed.” I believe Peter is reminding them of his qualification to make such a charge. As someone who saw Christ die with his own eyes, and who is himself enduring suffering with Christ and these other men, he is basically saying, “We’re in this together, elders, I share in both your suffering and the future hope.

So, what is the exhortation? 

We’ve explored the “who” of pastors. Now we get into the “what” or the function of elders. What are we called to do? 

Read verse 2. 

First, the image Scripture gives of God’s church should warm your heart. Whatever your view or experience of the church, I need you to see that God sees his church as his flock. If you remember Psalm 23, “The Lord is my Shepherd, I shall not want,” you’ll know that God loves his flock very much. He cares for his people tenderly and carefully, like a shepherd would care for his flock. 

And God has called others, like Peter, into fellowship with him to love and care for his flock alongside him. You may remember that Peter was called by Jesus just before his ascension to feed his lambs. Now, this same Peter reminds the elders to have this same mind – “shepherd God’s flock.” 

Elders are shepherds. This is where we get the word “pastor” that we use so commonly for elders. Pastor is a Latin word meaning Shepherd. Elders, or pastors, are shepherds who care for the sheep, the people of God. 

How are they to care for the sheep? 

What better example than Christ who calls himself “the Good Shepherd”. 

Whereas David calls Yahweh his Shepherd in Psalm 23, Jesus claims in John 10 to be that Shepherd. He says, “I am the door of the sheep… if anyone enters by me, he will be saved and will go in and out and find pasture. The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life and have it abundantly. I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep” (vv. 7-11).

Jesus’s point is that he has come to give his people everything they need for abundant life, even unto eternal life. Even though the shepherds of Israel had failed for many years to lead the people to God, God promised in Ezekiel 34:15 “I myself will tend my sheep and have them lie down, declares the Sovereign Lord.” Friends, Jesus fulfills this promise. God came in the person of Christ to rescue us! He is the GOOD Shepherd. He is the good leader humanity needs and has been longing for. 

So when Jesus calls Peter to feed his lambs, and likewise, Peter calls the elders to shepherd the flock of God, he is, in essence, calling them to make sure that the sheep keep coming to him, to Christ, that they would never try to find a different way, a different kind of happiness, because it is only a path of destruction; God is the only path to life. 

Shepherds are called to lead the flock to where they can meet with Jesus and find joy in him, to feed the flock the very words of Christ so that their souls will be nourished and built up into maturity in him, held fast in their faith. Negatively, shepherds are called to keep watch over the flock that they would not wander into sinful paths, into false teaching that would destroy their souls. This is where church discipline comes into play. 

But there is a problem. There is a reason Peter needs to exhort the elders. Notice Peter’s words starting in the second half of verse 2 through 3, where Peter warns against three common temptations shepherds face. 

vv. 2-4         

Leading under compulsion 

Leading for shameful gain

Leading in a domineering way

I want to give some examples that highlight these dangers that I think apply to Peter’s warning.

Leading under compulsion: “Do I really have to deal with that person again?” “Ugh…I have to preach again this Sunday. They don’t even listen to me.” “How can I minister to those who slander me?” “How can I care for those who take advantage of my family’s time?” “I just need to get through this Sunday” This would include dreading your work, despising it, having a serious dislike for the people etc. 

Sheep who experience this see a leader who often fails to lead, who is cold and perhaps bitter or reclusive. There’s a lack of joy. 

But Peter says, don’t lead this way, but lead “willingly, as God would have you.” 

Leading for shameful gain: “How do they expect me to care for them well when they barely pay me enough to scrape by” “Well… It is a good paying job” “This role really boosts my position in society” “This will be a great launching pad to what I really want to do” This would include greedy, sleezy, deceitful, and haughty behavior. Sheep who experience this often may learn of a moral failure from their pastor, or may just get the sense that their shepherd cares more about his appearance and status before men than he does the holiness of the people. 

Peter says, don’t lead this way, but eagerly. 

Leading in a domineering way “They won’t do it my way…Then find someone else” “It’s my way or the highway” “It’s my pulpit” “It’s my church” “I’m the elder” “I’m the lead Pastor, who does that other leader think they are?” This would include intimidating, manipulating, bullying behavior. Sheep who experience this often come away from time with the Shepherd with their tails between their legs, feeling disrespected and about two feet tall. 

Peter says, don’t lead this way, but instead lead by example. 

There are a number of things that lead Shepherds to act in these sorts of ways, but I believe the core issue that applies to every flawed pastor is when their own hearts are not moved by the love and mercy of God towards themselves or towards the flock whom they are called to care for. This leads to a cold heart that overlooks the gravity of the role they’ve been given.They’ve forgotten just how much mercy has been shown to them. 

Maybe you’ve experienced some of these nasty sinful behaviors from your pastors in the past or perhaps presently at All peoples Church. I’m so sorry. I’m so sorry if you’ve been hurt directly or indirectly by us. Further, I’m truly sorry that we who have been called to be an example of Christ’s loving care to you so often fail you in our sinfulness. 

But what I need you to know is that Jesus never serves you out of compulsion. He didn’t come out of compulsion, forgive you out of compulsion, die out of compulsion, or give you his Spirit out of compulsion, but willingly, joyfully, eagerly. He walked among us and entered into mine and your sinful stink because he loved us. It wasn’t for selfish gain, nor was it domineering, but rather he has always been patient, going the extra mile even when we have resisted him. 

It is only when Shepherds see this picture of Christ that we will be moved to willingly, joyfully, eagerly serve the flock of God. We must be led by his example of leadership and we must ourselves be following Jesus as sheep if we are going to be faithful examples to others. 

Peter gives these warnings because he himself knows that only Jesus is sinless in his leadership. 

 But he also offers hope in verse 4 to shepherds who fight to serve faithfully. 

Friends, ministry is hard because people are hard and sinful.

Even when one has pure motives to serve the flock of God, the challenges of life and ministry along with the sinful responses of those we serve can tempt shepherds to sinful and dangerous behavior.

But Peter here reminds the elders who suffer in their role, that Jesus, the chief Shepherd will again appear. It’s not a matter of if, but when! And when he appears, Peter says, those who have endured faithfully in their labor will receive glory and honor that is unfading, even as Christ himself was exalted to glory. These words give me so much hope. 

Now, we’ve answered the questions “who are shepherds?” and “what do they do”. But we need to cover another very important question, “how should the church relate to shepherds?” What do you do with Ross, Sam, and I?

Read verse 5 with me 

How are sheep to respond to the shepherds? Sheep are called to “be subject” to the shepherds. This is a loaded word and topic all together, so it’s important that we define this term. Secondly, we need to answer who the “younger” refers to. Who exactly must be subject to the elders? 

Define: ὑποτάσσω: “to submit to the orders or directives of someone—‘to obey, to submit to, obedience, submission.’”[1]

This word is describing a relationship with ordered roles. Peter uses this same term to describe the relationship of servants to their masters, citizens to their ruler, wives to their husbands, and even the church to Christ. 

See why I say this is a loaded term? Our culture hates the idea that anyone could lead you with this sort of authority. This topic is actually at the core of most philosophical, political, economic, and even racial debates. But it’s not only our culture who baulks at authority. So do I. This is true from birth! My little two-month-old hates to be denied his desires. Anyone with kids knows what I’m talking about, right? 

I understand why so many baulk at this idea of authority. There have been a lot of bad leaders throughout history. We’d rather be responsible for our own failures than have someone else responsible for them, right? I get it! 

Even so, Church, this is a command of God who created the earth, including the order of all things in it. 

And I need you to see the beauty in this God-given command.  

Friend, when Peter calls you to welcome the elder’s leadership in your life, he’s not saying that they will always lead you perfectly – that’s clear from the previous warnings – but that God ultimately has your good in mind. This is not a malevolent ploy of religious leaders to gain as much power of humans as possible, but the effort of a tender-hearted God who is concerned for the well-being of his sheep. 

Listen to Jesus’s response to what he saw as he ministered throughout Israel: “When Jesus saw the crowds, he had compassion for them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd”(Mt 9:36). 

Don’t you see the compassion of God? This is just before Jesus called the disciples to pray for more laborers for the harvest. There weren’t enough leaders to help these harassed sheep! 

Friends, whether you have a good reason to fear submitting to another’s leadership or not today, I need you to understand God’s good purpose in it. He is for you. He wants abundant life for you. And if Christ is the example shepherds are called to follow, than you can trust that even in submitting to your elders, God has good in mind for you. 

Listen also to Heb. 13:17, which captures this same point: 17 Obey your leaders and submit to them, for they are keeping watch over your souls, as those who will have to give an account. Let them do this with joy and not with groaning, for that would be of no advantage to you.

Peter and the author of Hebrews believe that you will benefit and thrive more by joyfully receiving our care for you than you will having a resistant attitude or heart. 

Hebrews also touches on our second question, who must be subject to the elders? Hebrews clearly directs the entire church to obey and submit to their leaders, but who are “the younger” Peter is talking about in verse 5? 

Bible scholars agree, Peter is not singling out young people here. He is using words skillfully, contrasting the two groups of people in the entire community, “elders” and “younger”. Even as the elders were relatively older than most in the community, even if just in maturity, the rest of the community were for the most part younger in age and also those urged to submit to the other group, the elders. 

I believe Peter may also be offering a warning to the church, even as he has been offering warnings to the elders. It is the temptation especially of the young, both in age and maturity to rebel against authority. Peter is challenging the church not to be like rebellious teenagers, or two month old’s… Everyone is called to submit to the oversight of their elders, even when they don’t like what they are doing. I’ll touch more on this in a moment. 

Peter follows this charge with these important words, “clothe yourselves” in humility. In fact, all of you must clothe yourselves in humility – sheep towards other sheep, sheep towards shepherd, and shepherd towards sheep. You’ve got to wear humility like a garment. Notice, this is not a passive activity, but one that requires personal action from every one of us – you must clothe yourselves. Humility doesn’t come naturally. It must be practiced continually, even as you dress yourself daily. Especially in the Christian community, Peter says, it must be practiced if a community is going to thrive. Pride, on the other hand, is at the center of strife in all our relationships, with one another, with sheep and shepherd, even with God. 

This is why Peter quotes this somber warning from the Proverbs: “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.” 

Peter’s burden is about more than submission to shepherds. It’s about our submission to God. Sheep and shepherd relationships, and all relationships for that matter, tell us something about our relationship with God. Verses 6 and 7 makes this clear:

Don’t you see? God is saying that when you humble yourself, even before imperfect shepherds, humbly following them, you are ultimately humbling yourself before God. In the same way, when we reject the care of those whom God has placed over us, whether their correction or counsel or teaching, we are actually proudly opposing God. Friends, your pastors are not ultimate, but God is. And we don’t want God as our enemy. 

The same is true for Shepherds. When we lay down our lives for sometimes ungrateful and stubborn sheep, we are humbling ourselves before God. But when we take matters into our own hands and try to proudly control those same people in the ways mentioned above, we are ultimately squaring up with God. We oppose him. 

Some of you are anxious over our leadership, our teaching, or other things. Perhaps you have been hurt by us or others. Yet you continue to submit to us lovingly and humbly. You pray for us. You show up and serve. You don’t slander us or complain, but you cast your cares on God. First of all, thank you. Thank you. 

If this is true of you, we would encourage you to come to us with your honest challenges and questions. (This is why we have a pastoral covenant that we make to you in order that you might hold us accountable to God’s call on us – I hope each of you got a copy.) Casting your cares on God doesn’t negate the call to keep your elders accountable. There’s a time for challenging others, leaving a church, defying a government, even for leaving a marriage. But I think we are far too quick to do so, and often far too worldly in our approach.

Taking matters into your own hands, some of you have resorted to gossip and slander, defiance, and some have simply left without saying anything. Some have caused division, even hindering the mission of God. 

Peter says, humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God. God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble. 

Humility, friends, is the key to enduring challenging ministry situations or challenging sinful leadership. 

And humility works itself out in trust. 

First, it trusts that God will exalt you at the proper time (v. 6). Humility believes that God has your good in mind even if you feel like your leaders don’t see you or know your potential or agree with your perspective. 

Secondly, humility “casts all your anxieties on God”, trusting that God cares for you. Right now. In this moment. In that challenging situation you are walking through. God cares for you. He will vindicate you in his time. 

Humility in relationships looks like us laying aside our proud natural instinct to try to control others and the outcome of situations and instead trusting God to ultimately bring about the change we want to see in another. Yes, we should confront sin. Yes, we should challenge what we think may be poor leadership, but we should do so with a heart submitted to God, which has first prayed for the person or situation and served diligently while trusting that God knows and cares. 

In chapter 2, Peter reminds us that Christ did the same for us: 

    and no deceit was found in his mouth.”[a]

Are you following in Christ’s steps in the way you suffer in his church?

When we humble ourselves before God and others, we are following in Christ’s footsteps. You are suffering with him. And those who suffer with him like this are promised also be raised with him. 

Suffering is sure to come as Christian, and sadly, often in the family of God. But God has given us instruction knowing the challenges we would face and he has kindly given us hope for a future without suffering in his glory. 

Church, this hope-filled response to suffering is what sets us apart from the world. It is often a greater witness to the world than our words. 

What if it began in the church with one another? In how we relate to sheep and shepherd and to one another, we must live as Christ lived and follow his example. We long for the promised day together, humbling ourselves to God, trusting that he cares for us, both now and for eternity. 

Benediction:

[1] Louw, J. P., & Nida, E. A. (1996). Greek-English lexicon of the New Testament: based on semantic domains(electronic ed. of the 2nd edition., Vol. 1, p. 467). New York: United Bible Societies.

Rick Shenk

Pastor Rick Shenk joined us as our guest speaker to preach from Psalm 131.

Ross Tenneson

Pastor Ross Tenneson preaches from 1 Corinthians 5 on church discipline for our Life Together Series.

Ross Tenneson / General

Life Together / Church Discipline / 1 Corinthians 5:1–13

Church discipline is meant to restore a sinner to Jesus

Intro

Have you ever been excluded from a group of people you wanted to belong to? It is painful. It is hurtful. Often times, it is unloving.

The church is the most magnificent and wonderful group to belong to in the world. Really the church? They’re a bunch of messy people. Yes, yet to belong to the church is to belong to the family God has adopted and will get to live with him forever.

Now, would we ever exclude someone from the church? Would that be loving? At first glance, our reaction is probably “no.” Yet, what if I told you that the Bible teaches that it’s sometimes loving to exclude someone from the church? Let me show you. We are going to turn to 1 Cor 5, the longest treatment on Church discipline in the Bible.

Revelation

It is actually reported that there is sexual immorality among you, and of a kind that is not tolerated even among pagans, for a man has his father’s wife.

Friends, this text starts off very heavy. What’s going on is a man is probably sleeping with his step-mother. A gross, sexual perversion. It would have wrecked his family. It would have brought shame to his church community. Worst of all, it was an offense against a holy God who created sex to be between a husband and a wife.

Although the church should be a place where such catastrophic things don’t happen, they do. It is easy to think of the early church in the Bible as an ideal community. If we could only go back to then, we wouldn’t have any problems. Sadly, this is far from the case. Even the early church had scandals and moral failures. When we see moral failures in church leaders today, we should mourn and grieve like we did for the one who fell just within the last couple weeks.

Yet, we should not panic as if this is a new development. Sin in the church has always been a problem and God has a good plan for dealing with it and for working salvation and life out of the ashes of sin and death.

Paul next says,

2 And you are arrogant! Ought you not rather to mourn?

It’s striking to me how similar the Corinthian church’s response was to our culture today. They were proud about their celebration and their “tolerance” of sexual sin. Apparently, the value in the culture that we should celebrate all kinds of sexual relationships had gotten into the church in Corinth. Yet, notice what Paul’s response was. It was not to rail against the culture around him, it was to focus on the church and how they respond to that sin.

Notice the response he commends: not, do you despise this sinner? Do you slam this sinner? Do you hate this sinner? But, “do you mourn over this sin?” (a verb that describes people mourning for the dead, cite) Friends, our first response when there is sin and scandal in the church should not be hatred, spite, or revenge, but sorrow. Sadness should be our first response to moral failure and sin.

Then, Paul says something that is unexpected and surprising to us modern listeners,

 Let him who has done this be removed from among you.

This sounds unloving; it sounds unforgiving. Really, remove someone from the church? Yet, that’s exactly what the Apostle says. He will explain later why this is in fact the loving, Christ-like thing to do. Paul teaches when someone commits a grievous sin like this man did, the right response is to remove them from the church family. Paul does not even assume this authority for himself as an Apostle, but assigns it to the church.[1]

You might say… wait a moment! This sounds different from what Jesus taught in Matthew 18. In Matthew 18, there are four steps you take before removing someone from the church, yet here it sounds immediate. What’s going one?

Friends, it seems like there are two different processes for different kinds of sin. All sin is serious, yet some is more serious than others. There is some sin, like drinking excessively that, while wrong and against the Lord, it is not inconceivable that a Christian would fall into this sin. This is a serious sin and someone who is committing this must turn from it. Yet, it is different from more scandalous and severe sins, like having multiple affairs and hiding it from your wife. That’s a sin that, like Paul says in verse 1, would shock even our unbelieving neighbors.

In the first example, we grieve, yet can see how a Christian could commit that sin. So, we urge them to turn from it and stop walking in it, lest if they keep committing it, they show that they are not following Jesus.

In the second example, this is a sin that a Christian with the Holy Spirit in them in all likelihood would not commit. It shows that their confession to follow Jesus is not credible. Therefore, the church should remove them from the family first, and then urge them to repent and follow Jesus after.

3 For though absent in body, I am present in spirit; and as if present, I have already pronounced judgment on the one who did such a thing.

He says that Christians with the Holy Spirit can make judgments about other Christian’s external actions about whether they are following Jesus or not. He is saying this is a sufficiently clear case for form a judgement about: you can know with reasonable certainty that this person should receive discipline.

In this situation, he is not discerning the person’s heart attitudes apart from outward behavior. He is not acting on a hunch. No, there is a clear, outward, damaging, appalling sin that this person has committed for the church to respond to.

Friends, we should not have attitudes of skepticism towards each other where we distrust one another’s professions of faith. Yet, when the evidence is so clear and substantial that someone’s life is so out sync with their profession to follow Jesus, the church must intervene for the sake of love. 

4 When you are assembled in the name of the Lord Jesus and my spirit is present, with the power of our Lord Jesus, 5 you are to deliver this man to Satan for the destruction of the flesh, so that his spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord.

Paul says that the church should assemble and respond to the sin this person committed. This judgement is not based on our own authority or wisdom. Rather, it is “in the name of the Lord Jesus.” It is under his authority. The Church disciplines in dependence on Jesus and on the basis of his word.[2] The Apostle Paul says “and my Spirit is present,” showing that he agrees with these judgments. Friends, when we engage in the hard work of church discipline, we are in good company. The Apostle Paul and the Lord Jesus know this is good for God’s people.

Notice also then when the church excludes someone from the family, they do it “with the power of our Lord Jesus.” Jesus has given the church the amazing authority of excluding unrepentant sinners from the church as an exercise of his power. Church discipline is a very important, weighty task that we must be diligent to do since Jesus says it is an exercise of his very power.[3]

Paul says, “you are to deliver this man to Satan for the destruction of the flesh, so that his spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord.”

What does it mean to “deliver this man to Satan for the destruction of his flesh?” It’s a difficult phrase. The world is the sphere or realm that the devil primarily influences.[4] The Church is the realm that God’s Spirit primarily influences. This man, although he acts like he is apart of the church and the people of God, in fact, he is not. The church should remove from from their midst to show him what is already true of him, that he does not as of yet belong to the Lord.

Notice, friends, the purpose of this judgement: that his spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord! The judgement of removing someone from the church family temporarily is so that they can belong to God forever.

That’s how I am understanding the contrast of “flesh” and “Spirit” in this verse. Flesh probably refers to an ungodly manner of life (think “works of the flesh”). On the other hand, his Spirit refers to his spiritual new life that comes when he returns to Jesus.

If this is the intention of church discipline, to bring people to be with Jesus forever, how can we not follow through when the Bible tells us to? This process is hard, sad, and tearful, yet it is a means to bring souls into everlasting life and communion with God. Church discipline is a means of grace.

The pain from the church removing someone from the family is meant to alarm them and warn them about what final consequences of their sins so that they turn and return to the Lord. It is never final! Only dying without turning from your sins is final. Hence, we do all that we can to bring life to people, even separating them from the family for a period of time in the cases of severe sin. This is the main point today: that we remove unrepentant sinners from the family so that they would return to Jesus and live. (and the good news is that this is what seems to have happened, cite) Let’s keep going and see how Paul further illuminates our understanding of this process,

Paul then says,

6 Your boasting is not good. Do you not know that a little leaven leavens the whole lump?

Paul is saying that their boasting in their tolerance of sin is not good. It is hurting this sinner and it is hurting the church family. How is it hurting the whole church family?

He says the sin of this person “leavens the whole lump.” This is an analogy to baking bread. When you bake bread, a little bit of leaven (or yeast) spreads through the dough and causes it to rise (so I’ve heard, I haven’t actually done this). In the Old Testament, “leaven” is a metaphor or symbol for sin. Hence, God’s people had to eat unleavened bread at the Passover Feast when Israel celebrates how God rescued them from slavery in Egypt.

Paul is not saying it is wrong to bake leavened bread, don’t worry. He is saying the image of leavening applies to the church. When we don’t address sin in our body and let it go as if everything is alright, we implicitly teach one another than sin is alright. Our words would never say so, but our actions do. And, the sin this person is walking in can sadly spread throughout the church as others feel encouraged to join in.

I was talking to a guy around the fire the other night who struggled with a past of pain and addiction. He said he never had exposure to those things, until he went to a church youth group. When he was there, the other kids introduced him to these substances that head a devastating effect on his life. While it is easier to tolerate the sins of others and hope for the best, often they can produce the worst in the lives of others around them.

The church must be a place that is “safe for sinners but not for sin.” We welcome sinners into our church family, and then we urge them and fight with them for them to be free from sin.

7 Cleanse out the old leaven that you may be a new lump, as you really are unleavened. For Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed.

Paul is telling the Corinthian church to cleanse out the unclean sinner from the family so that they can be the clean lump, the pure bride, the holy people Jesus died for the church to be! We often hear this phrase in Christianity, “become what you already are.” It means that Jesus has forgiven us and made us holy in his eyes, so we should start to live in accordance with how God already sees us.

Here, Paul takes this line of thought and applies it to the church. Jesus did not just die for individuals: he died for his church; he died for his family. He died to produce a pure people who trust in him and follow him. One day, because of what Jesus did, we will be that in heaven. There will be the church of God’s people with Jesus and everyone will be pure and holy before him.

Church, we should become what God has designed the church to be: a pure bride full of believers. When it becomes transparent that someone in our church is not actually a follower of Jesus yet, we should remove them to preserve the purity of the church.

The next verse further shows us Paul’s logic: “Because Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed.” Because our sacrificial lamb Jesus has been sacrificed to create a pure church, we should remove someone who is not pure and not following Jesus.

8 Let us therefore celebrate the festival, not with the old leaven, the leaven of malice and evil, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.

All throughout this chapter, Paul is making reference back to the passover in the OT. That is when God sent the angel of death into Egypt and he spared his people who sacrificed a lamb and put the blood on their door posts, and he punished the Egyptians who did not.

After sacrificing the lamb, the church was supposed to have a feast of unleavened bread called the passover feast (or a “festival”). Paul is describing our church life that is a festival that follows the sacrifice of a lamb to atone for our sins.[5]

Friends, I love our church life together! There are some moments that are so sweet and God is so powerfully in them.  Friends, for us to have deep times of worship and intimacy with God and one another, we have to be a community of true followers of Jesus. Our church life will severely suffer if there are people in our church who are still filled with “malice” and “evil” rather than “sincerity” and “truth.” Healthy life together depends in part on a faithful practice of church discipline to have a pure community of Christ-followers.

Next Paul transitions to a statement to guard against a crucial misunderstanding of his words,

9 I wrote to you in my letter not to associate with sexually immoral people— 10 not at all meaning the sexually immoral of this world, or the greedy and swindlers, or idolaters, since then you would need to go out of the world.

Paul refers here to a previous letter he wrote where he apparently said something similar to the effect that the church should not associate with sexually immoral people. Notice what he says next,

“not at all meaning the sexually immoral of this world, or the greedy swindlers, or idolaters, since then you would need to go out of the world.” A wrong interpretation of this text is that you stop spending time with your neighbors, coworkers, family, and friends who are living immoral lifestyles. This text is not addressing those situations at all. This text is specifically about people who are claiming to be Christians and are in the church and are making sinful decisions that are contrary to that profession.

Friends, Jesus has not called us to remove ourselves from the company of our neighbors who do not know him yet, but to pursue company with them! Jesus is the greatest example of this principle: he ate and had table fellowship with all kinds of people. In many situations, we are called to do just that. If we confuse God’s design for the church to be pure with scorning our neighbors rather than loving them like Jesus did, we have become confused.

Notice that in both cases, when we embrace our neighbors who don’t know Jesus yet or exclude a professing Christian who is in unrepentant sin, there is the same design behind both actions: that the other person would live! We want our neighbors to live, so we spend time with them. We want someone who is professing Christ yet plunging himself into deep sin to live, so we remove him from the church until he returns to Christ.

Paul clarifies this point further in verse 11,

11 But now I am writing to you not to associate with anyone who bears the name of brother if he is guilty of sexual immorality or greed, or is an idolater, reviler, drunkard, or swindler—not even to eat with such a one.

Here is the key, Paul tells the church not to associate with someone who “bears the name of brother” if he is guilty of sexual immorality or greed, or is an idolater, reviler, drunkard, or swindler. To “bear the name of brother” is to refer to yourself as  a Christian. Paul tells the Corinthian church that someone who calls themselves a “Christian” and yet is giving themselves over sin, the church should change the way they associate with that person.

How should they associate with a brother who is sinful?

Paul says they should not even “to eat with such a one.” What does Paul mean by this phrase? Does he mean a shunning in which the community no longer engages with that person and not longer has a relationship with them?  I don’t think that’s the meaning since their exclusion is mean to bring them back to the Lord and into the church. How would that happen if the community permanently shuns them?

Rather, we see in this letter, that when Paul is talking about eating together. In 10:16 he says,

16 The cup of blessing that we bless, is it not a participation in the blood of Christ? The bread that we break, is it not a participation in the body of Christ? 17 Because there is one bread, we who are many are one body, for we all partake of the one bread.

In other words, the way we change our association with someone whose lifestyle denies Jesus and we remove them from the family is not to stop communicating with them or loving them. It is to stop eating the Lord’s Supper with them or treating them as if they were a believer until they repent and follow Jesus as Lord again. The Lord’s Supper is an intimate meal shared by God’s people to bind them together into one with one another and with Jesus. We must reserve this meal for people who actually are one with Jesus and not give them or any others in our family the false impression that they are actually following him. That would be unloving to the church, to the sinner, and to God.

Perhaps you hear that list of sins in this verse and notice that it includes you. Maybe you are living in sexual immorality or greed, maybe you are dishonestly getting money for yourself, or have a love that you are placing higher than Jesus, or are verbally abusive to others, or are giving yourself over to substances, or dishonestly taking money from others. I want to echo a word Paul uses later in this letter, “flee!” Flee from these sins. Don’t let them get a foothold in your heart.

This man who committed this outrageous and horrible sin in this chapter and made shipwreck of his faith probably did not wake up one day and suddenly commit this sin. Instead, he made little compromises with evil, thinking he could control his sin. Yet, instead, his sin ended up controlling him. He got more than he bargained for. He found himself shaming his church, denying his Lord, and jeopardizing his soul. My hope and prayer for this church is we never have to carry out 1 Cor 5 again. So, let’s not nurture sin in our lives at all so we can avoid the tears and pain when we lose a family member to sin. 

12 For what have I to do with judging outsiders? Is it not those inside the church whom you are to judge?

Paul here reiterates himself. The church does not have the authority to judge those outside of the church, we have the sober responsibility to judge those within the church. How sad that the church is known for doing the opposite, casting judgement on the world while it is filled with hypocrites. We can avoid that stereotype by applying this passage, eating with our neighbors no matter their lifestyle, and applying the loving process of church discipline to people whose manner of life denies their confession of faith.

In my last sermon, on our identity as exiles, I preached about how we have no authority or power over the world. Yet, we do have the responsibility to keep the church pure and filled with God’s people.

13 God judges those outside. “Purge the evil person from among you.”

Paul ends with decisive word, he says, “let God judge those outside the church.” You “purge the evil person from among you.” Do you see the quotes around that word? It’s a phrase from the book of Deuteronomy that Deuteronomy repeats seven times. It means that ancient Israel was supposed to impose the death sentence on sinners who had serious offenses. We are supposed also to as fiercely defend the purity of the church. Yet, these words also point to how gracious and loving this process is. When any of us commit a horrible sin, we actually do deserve a final judgement like death. Yet this chapter makes clear that church discipline is only a temporary judgement that is supposed to result in eternal life.

Make no mistake, the Old Covenant was a merciful covenant. Yet, the new covenant shows even more mercy to poor sinners like me. Friends, no matter how far you have fallen or how dark your life has become, there is always a way back. Whether you are under church discipline or you feel like God is disciplining you in some other way for you sin, you can come back to him at any time. He and the church have their arms wide open for repentant sinners! Later in 1 Cor, Paul writes

 32 But when we are judged by the Lord, we are disciplined so that we may not be condemned along with the world.

Anyone who is stuck in their sin today, whether you are a follower of Jesus or not, I urge you today to turn from your sin and put your trust in him. Don’t let this opportunity pass. As time passes, sin’s influence on you will become stronger and stronger. Christ would burst you free right now. Please don’t leave without talking to someone else. I will be available to talk to any member or visitor who wants forgiveness and freedom from sin.

[1] John Calvin, Calvin’s Commentaries on the Book of 1 Corinthians and 2 Corinthians, trans. Henry Beveridge (BakerBooks, 2009).

[2] John Calvin, Calvin’s Commentaries on the Book of 1 Corinthians and 2 Corinthians, trans. Henry Beveridge (BakerBooks, 2009).

[3] John Calvin, Calvin’s Commentaries on the Book of 1 Corinthians and 2 Corinthians, trans. Henry Beveridge (BakerBooks, 2009).

[4] Morris, L. (1985). 1 Corinthians: an introduction and commentary (Vol. 7, p. 89). Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press.

[5] John Calvin, Calvin’s Commentaries on the Book of 1 Corinthians and 2 Corinthians, trans. Henry Beveridge (BakerBooks, 2009).